Paes-Peya pair enters French Open second round

Paris, June 1: The seventh seeded pair of Indian veteran Leander Paes and Austrian Alexander Peya advanced to the French Open second round after notching up a three-set win in their opening men's doubles match

Paris, June 1: The seventh seeded pair of Indian veteran Leander Paes and Austrian Alexander Peya advanced to the French Open second round after notching up a three-set win in their opening men's doubles match at the Roland Garros here.

Paes and Peya defeated Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3 in a contest lasting a little over two hours.

They will now be facing the unseeded Russian-Uzbek combination of Mikhail Elgin and Denis Istomin, who got the better of Belarus' Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus 3-6 6-3, 7-6 (0).

Paes and Peya made a resounding start in the match and quite literally ran away with the opening set, taking just 27 minutes to seal it by converting three of the four break points they earned.

The seventh seeds were broken once but had the upper hand with a better first serve winning percentage.

The Italians fought their way back in the second set, saving a couple of break points to take it to a tie-breaker which they won easily.

But Bolelli and Fognini ran out of steam in the decider, failing to convert even one of the three break points they earned.

The Indo-Austrian combine, meanwhile, managed to get the crucial break of serve and that proved decisive as the seventh seeds emerged triumphant.